Correspondence of Governor Sharpe. 111

the Board to be qualified & at the same time will appoint D^r:
Scott Clerk to that Board in the stead of M^r Ross who being
of late become very infirm is anxious to resign in the Doctors
favour, after which he will not enjoy any Office under His Ldp
that I know of except the Naval Office of Potuxent, for as to
what he does for Col^o Lloyd he can be considered only as a
private Factor : & I submit it to Yourself whether it would
have a good Appearance that a Person who was sent hither
almost forty years ago by the Lord Baltimore & has not since
that time engaged in any Business besides that of his Office
& what he transacted for the Agent & is moreover well
esteemed by the principal Persons concerned in the Govern-
ment should be now laid aside without having done any thing
to give Offence especially as it is notorious that he has lived
up to his Income, is now too old & infirm to engage in any
new kind of Business & is not likely to stand in any ones way
many years longer. In case of his Death or Removal I
should be glad to know whom His Ldp will have appointed
for you cannot but be sensible that my nominating any Person
& his being afterwards displaced tends to lessen my Influence
& inclines the Person established in the office to think that he
is very little obliged to me for his promotion : & since I am
on this Subject I cannot help expressing some Concern at
your referring M^r Plater to me for a favourable answer to the
Application he was pleased to make to you for should the
Naval Office of Potuxent become vacant M^r Plater would in
Consequence of Your Letter expect to be appointed yet not-
withstanding I have really a Regard for him I cannot under
Your Letters venture to give him a Commission & by my
refusing to do so he will in all probability consider me as
averse to his promotion & should His Lordship be afterwards
pleased to send me an Instruction in his favour I shall not seem
to be entitled to any Return from M^r Plater, yet at the same
time whoever may fail in their Application for the Office will be
apt to think their ill success is owing entirely to me. I was a
little surprized at M^r Dulany's telling me the other Day that
you approved of his Brother Walter to be Agent & Receiver
General in the stead of Col^o Lloyd as you have not in any of
your Letters given me the least Intimation of such a Thing,
but as M^r Dulany gave me to understand that you had commu-
nicated to him what Col^o Lloyd had wrote to you with regard
to M^r Goldsborough & your answer thereto I could not doubt
what he mentioned with regard to your Intentions in favour
of his Brother: but when he expressed his hopes that I would
nominate him I replied that as Col^o Lloyd had not acquainted
me with his Intention to resign the Agency & you had not
directed me to supersede him & appoint M^r Walter Dulany in

Letter Bk. IV